William C. McCartney was born 12 Apr 1781 in Pennsylvania and died 30 Jul 1852 in South Bend, St. Joseph, Indiana. He began raising his family in Clark, Champaign and Logan counties in Ohio. He was very active in land trading there. Some of his children married there and one son, Hiram, remained in Logan Co., working as a private and prosecuting attorney.
William then moved on with most of his children to South Bend, Indiana, establishing the first flouring mill on McCartney Creek in 1831. He also opened a tannery there and served as an associate judge from 1833 to at least 1837.
In 1832 he served on a board to establish an orphan's home in St. Joseph County and he was elected the first school commissioner for German Township.
William played a controversial role in the attempt to establish a "Fourier Society" -- a Socialist collective -- on the McCartney Farm in 1845. Some say he betrayed the group by not turning over his land as promised. Others indicate that he knew the group was failing and was unwilling to squander his family's assets.
His land was along the river in SE German Twp, later Portage Twp. He was buried in the McCartney Family Cemetery, now built over behind a house at 1237 Kinyon St. in South Bend. His headstone still exists, preserved in a neighbor's yard at 1218 Kessler Place. Fragments of other family stones are also there.
William and his wife, Margery, had 12 children but consumption/TB took its toll -- killing all 12 of them. Margery was born in the U.S. of German ancestry. Only one McCartney-named line, from his son Nathaniel is known to survive to 2016. Most of his children lived from 30-40 years and married. All died of TB. In 2007, there were also descendants from some of his daughters' and granddaughters' lines.
McCartney Creek has since dried up, but the names McCartney Farm and McCartney Bottom survived into the early 1900s. McCartney Street still exists in South Bend in the area of the old family farm.